Theater: The Grinch sings his way to Christmas cheer

By R. Scott Reedy/For The Patriot Ledger

Saturday

Nov 24, 2018 at 7:20 AM

Unlike many Americans who grew up watching the classic animated television special “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” every year, British-born actor Gavin Lee didn’t become familiar with the Dr. Seuss story until he was well into adulthood.

“In England, I don’t think we knew the Grinch. I saw the special for the first time when I moved here 12 years ago,” said Lee by telephone from his home in Maplewood, N.J., recently.

But like generations of people who have taken to their hearts the character with the heart two sizes too small, Lee has since come to know and love the Grinch.

So much so, in fact, that he’s ready to paint himself green, and the town a seasonal red, to play the Christmas-loathing creature in the touring production “Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical,” which comes to Boston’s Boch Center Wang Theatre November 28.

“The lovely thing is that I am now a father of three and we all watch the special every year as a family,” says Lee.

The actor’s family – his wife, American actress Emily Harvey, and children Luisa, 8, Hugo, 5, and 21-month-old Matilda – doesn’t restrict itself to the TV Grinch either.

“We’ve seen the live-action Jim Carrey film, ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas.’ And my wife just took the kids to see the new animated Benedict Cumberbatch feature ‘The Grinch,’ so they’ve actually done more research than I have,” says Lee with a laugh.

Dr. Seuss – pen name of the late Springfield-born writer Theodor Seuss Geisel – wrote the teleplay, based on his 1957 children’s book of the same title, for the now-iconic animated CBS-TV special, which premiered in 1966 and also featured the memorable Albert Hague and Eugene Poddany songs "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" and "Welcome Christmas.”

The stage version includes those songs as well as new music by Hague, Mel Marvin and Timothy Mason. It is narrated by the beleaguered Max the Dog, whose mean-spirited, mountaintop-dwelling master plots to steal Christmas away from the holiday-spirited Whos of neighboring Whoville.

“I love making people laugh so I’m going to have a ball playing the moody, grumpy Grinch, who gets to blow a raspberry at the other characters,” says Lee. “But it will be pretty awesome to play him happy, too, when his heart grows three sizes.”

The 47-year-old – a two-time Tony Award nominee, for 2018’s “SpongeBob SquarePants” and 2007’s “Mary Poppins” – says he’s also happy to be among the many who have played his current part.

“They’re all great actors. Boris Karloff gave voice to the Grinch in the TV special and he was magnificent. And I also love Patrick Page, who originated the role on stage in New York.

“Patrick has a deep, rich, fantastic voice. I tried to copy it but I couldn’t. Our director Matt August told me to make the role my own and gave me the freedom to take the character wherever I want,” says Lee.

With considerable help, of course, from costume designer Robert Morgan.

“I’m tall and lanky,” points out Lee. “So my Grinch is a green, bendy piece of spaghetti. I wear a skin-tight body suit, complete with a hilarious fake beer belly and protruding butt. Then the gloves, with the long fingernails, go on, then another body suit covered in green fur, then a winter coat.”

The performer knows that familiar costuming plays a big role in generating the heat around the cranky cave dweller.

“He’s definitely hot, though not in any way sexy-hot,” Lee is quick to quip. “He’s a mangy, stinky 53-year-old who lives in seclusion on a mountaintop with his poor dog.”

But when it comes to this particular green monster, the heat is definitely on.

“This is a very physical, very hot show to do, and it gets hotter and hotter by the minute. There are cooling stations just off-stage, and believe me, they are much-used and much-appreciated,” says Lee.

Something else he appreciates is the stage production’s respect for its source material.

“Our version definitely sticks to the TV special but with some wonderful new songs added. And each scene is designed as a page from the book and beautifully executed by our set designer, John Lee Beatty.

“The entire production sticks very closely to Dr. Seuss’s original story and is wonderfully nostalgic, which, I think, is what people really want to see, especially at the holidays,” says Lee.